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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf JjO^ p 

PRESENTED BY \ ^ / 

UNITED STATED OF AMERICA. 



THE HEROIC PERIOD 



IN THE HISTORY OE 

THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

DKLIYKRED IN THE EDIFICE OF SAID CHljRcH 

ON ITS 

25tl\ ANNIVERSARY, 

REV. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., EI.. D. 

FOR 15 YEARS ITS PASTOR. 




WASHINGTON, D. C. 
HOWARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 
1894. 



^ 






THE HEROIC PERIOD IN THE HISTORY OF THE 

FIRST CONGREGATIONAI CHURCH, 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 



My Christian Friends, I suppose I am here, to-night, where for 
fifteen years I preached the Gospel of God's forgiving love, largely 
because after five years of absence, God has honored me with a 
position, which makes me again a resident of a city, dearer to me 
than any other city in the world. I have selected a text, from which 
I think, I once preached in this pulpit. It is the charge, which the 
Jews of Thessalonica made against Paul and Silas, and is found in 
Acts, 17th chapter and the 6th verse: ''These men that have 
turned the world up side down have come hither also." 

It is a great thing to know the genesis of an enterprise; of an in- 
stitution; when and whj' it was born; and what is its reason for be- 
ing; why should it not go back to the womb of night and be no 
more. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." 
God gives us a genesis of His things. And just in proportion as a 
thing is of God; i^ managed in the fear of God, is connected with 
God's movements among men, man can to some extent, discover 
and give the genesis of it. There was no room for the Babe of 
Bethlehem in the inn. And it is a suggestive fact that not until the 
close of the war was there room for Congregationalism south of 
Mason and Dixon's line. Institutions w^ere not after this order. 
They were feudal, not democratic. There were apparent excep- 
tions to this, but they were not real. There was a Congregational 
Church in Charleston, S. C, , where the colored people sat in the 
gallery and the white people sat in the body of the church. There 
were Baptist Churches, Congregational in government all over the 
South, but they were white Baptist and black Baptist. The Con- 
gregationalism of New England, the Congregationalism of Plymouth 
Rock had to wait till the fullness of time, when the seed of woman 
should bruise the serpent's head, to come here upon the wave of 
that mighty tide of heroism, which culminated at Appomatox. So 
that as the clouds rolled away and the shoutings of the captains 



ceased and the God of battles was revealed walking upon war's 
surges and saying ''Peace be still," then, men and women, who be- 
lieve in man, as made in God's image and capable of self-govern- 
ment in churches, as well as in state, began to talk of a Congrega- 
tional Church in Washington Cit3^ Then, landed the Mayflower 
at the Capitol, and here was her Plymouth Rock. 

There were excellent churches here before, churches in which 
the best people of the North felt at home, in which they could be 
edified, in which they could work harmoniously, in which they oft- 
en served as office-bearers. Washington had always been a relig- 
ious city. But there was no church, in which were illustrated the dis- 
tinctive things of Congregationalism; namely, the perfect equality of 
Christian brotherhood, and the entire sufficiency of each church to 
manage its own affairs, under Christ, as the great Head of the Church. 
That institution had yet to come to birth. It came to birth, and 
was called the First Congregational Church of Washington. To 
found such a church were drawn together, in the Capitol of this re- 
public, amid shadows of feudalism, a band of Christian men and 
women, many of whom were worthy to be classed with hero- 
ic souls, who trod the deck of the Mayflower; for they had it in mind 
to link their work with that of the Pilgrims. 

I shall speak of this period as "The Heroic Period in the His- 
tory of this Church." I believe this may be done, without injustice 
to any other period, present or future, and in a true historic spirit. 

First. I shall speak of the personnel of this period. Of course, I 
can give only a sample of them. Many of the men, engaged in this 
church enterprise, as already intimated, came fresh from the baptism 
of fire and blood on the battlefield, where they had subscribed them- 
selves anew to be the Lord's. Some of them had written it in their 
own blood. There were generals, and colonels, and captains, and 
corporals, and privates, but all of them still aglow with the enthusi- 
asm of having carried agreatcause, the cause of humanity, the world 
over to a final triumphant issue ! There were eventually public 
men, from the man occupying the second office in the gift of the 
people, Henry Wilson, the Natick cobbler, who died in the Capitol, 
and to whose last hours it was my privilege to minister, down 
through Senators and Representatives, to the humblest messenger in 
the Departments, but all of one mind, seeing eye to eye, as to this 
project of a church, which should recognize the brotherhood of man 
and the fatherhood of God; the doctrine that God is our Father and 
we are all brothers. 



5 

Never perhaps, in the history of any church enterprise were there 
nobler men and women associated together. They had marked in- 
dividuality, but one Lord, one faith, one baptism. They came from 
the West and the Northwest, but especially from Maine and her sis. 
ter-states of New England, the hive where the Pilgrim Fathers first 
made the honey of Freedom's sweetness. There was one man, who, 
though he is not here to-night, owing to afflictions in his family, a 
man, who left his right arm at Fair Oaks, but keeps his heart and 
head alwa3^s ready to serve the cause of humanity to this day — so 
that apart from his military glory, his name v/ill always be associa- 
ted with that of another, bearing the same name in the Old World — 
there was one man, who was more than any other man to the public 
mind, the representative of the enterprise. How often have I heard 
this church called the Howard Church ! He exhorted, he prayed, 
he gave, he begged till the success of the enterprise was assured. 
He put $16,000 of his own monc}^ into it. There was another man 
from Maine, whose zeal, whose activity, whose self-forgetfulness, 
whose loyalty, whose patience and perseverance, render him worthy 
to be associated with this distinguished soldier, and whose name was 
among the first ever written upon its records; the nursing father of the 
enterprise : I mean Llewellyn Deane, Esq., a man, who found Gen. 
Howard as Andrew found Simon Peter, and told him of the enterprise. 
For the first nine months, this man carried the census of Congre- 
gationalists, by which this church was gathered, in his breast pocket, 
and b}^ his indefatigable exertions on the ground and through the 
press, prepared the way for its ultimate success. He bought the 
ground on which this building stands. There were also Gen. Geo. W. 
Ballock, who was alwa3^s Gen. Howard's loyal lieutenant — which is 
praise enough for any man — Daniel L. Eaton, the chivalric spirit, full 
of human love and holy zeal, who did not live to see the church's 
greatest triumphs, but predicted they were to come ; J. W. Alvord 
who amid the snows of life's ^vinter^ kept up a tropical ardor of soul 
such as made his life to bloom all over the city in countless kindness- 
es to the poor and lowly, and whose petitions to God in the prayer- 
meeting seemed always to be like an actual knocking at the gate of 
Heaven; Wni. F. Bascom, the man with the Roman firmness of na- 
ture, which always made it obligatory on him to say and do what he 
regarded the just thing, though the heavens fell; Wm. R. Hooper, 
of Pilgrim name and lineage, and so long the correspondent of "The 
Congregationalist"; Charles H. Bliss, Eliphalet Whittlesey, whose 



6 

honored name needs neither the prefixes nor the suihxes, which 
eminent service to school, the state, and church, have won for it ; 
a man as Roman as the Roman, but as pure as the Puritan, ready 
for any place, any title, any service to which duty called him; 
Wm. Russell and Silas H. Hodges, both of whom had been pastors 
elsewhere, both of whom were deacons here; Deacon Robinson, 
Deacon White, and other deacons.- Nearly all of these men had 
help-meets in their households, who were just as true and heroic 
as they were. For there were heroines, as well as heroes, in those 
days. And Mrs. Howard, and Mrs. Eaton, and Mrs. Bascom, and 
Mrs. Hooker, Mrs. Balloch and Mrs. Russell, and Mrs. Hodges and 
Mrs. Robinson, and Mrs. Patterson, and Mrs. White, Mrs. Whitney 
and Mrs. Rankin, were among the number. 

These men and women, to the number of one hundred and twent}^ 
one hundred and thirty at first, found themselves just escaped from 
the difference of opinion, as to whether colored people should be ad- 
mitted to Communion; on which question they maintained the affir- 
mative; an equal number or more, with the Pastor, Rev. Dr. Boynton, 
who maintained that this fellowship was allowable, but inexpedient, 
having withdrawn, and established worship on the next square. 
This heroic remnant was left with an unfinished edifice, no pipe- 
organ, and a debt of ^70,000, in a community in which Congregation- 
-alism was an exotic and a flower whose fragrance thus far had been 
an offence. The division, which was a matter of pubHc notoriety, 
drawing the eyes of the Christian public, all over the countrj^ took 
place in May, 1869. In August of the same year, the present speaker 
was called to the pastorate, and though kindly welcomed, he came to 
it with much fear and trembling. That at the end of 15 years closing 
June, 1884, the church had received annual accessions averaging 70 
each year, and had made such advances, as to be one of the leading 
and most influential churches in the city and in the country, may per- 
haps, be attributed in some little part to leadership in the pulpit, God 
only knows, but certainly, was no less owing to the favor of God and 
the fidelity, activity and self-sacrifices of the people themselves. I can 
say this that I asked of them no priviliges; I took none; that I gave 
my uttermost of time, strength and money; that I gladly took what- 
ever of anxiety and shame, the situation often involved; and God 
is my witness, that, though I always loved the cause they represent- 
ed better than I loved them, as I do to this day, I was ready to lay 
down .my life for their edification or welfare. 



Secondly. I shall speak of the lines of work adopted in that 
period for building up the church and congregation. 

In one sense, the position of the church was wholly unique. 
It had no rigid precedents. It had only principles. The pastor was 
accorded the largest liberty as to methods of administration. Dur- 
ing the 15 3^earsof his ministry, no church-question, no society-ques- 
tion, ever agitated the peace or the prosperity of the congregation. 
I remember when after a few years of patient toil and waiting, I pro- 
posed to the church the wisdom of inviting here, the Rev. E. P. Ham- 
mond, the Evangelist, how, without any discussion, on motion of Gen. 
Whittlesey, one of the wisest and most conservative of men. and a pas- 
tor of large experience, the church left the matter wholly to the discre- 
tion of the pastor. A company of five pastors of the city had been for 
five weeks praying dail}^, in a room now known as the Music Room of 
this structure, for a revival. These men, among whom were the saint- 
ed Dr. Mason Noble, and Dr. E. H Gray; Dr. S. Domer, agreed to 
unite in an invitation to Mr. Hammond then in Harrisburg, to visit 
Washington for Evangelical work. He came, and for three mouths^ 
meetings for preaching and inquiry were held in this church on every 
evening in the week, except Saturday ; the pastor always oc- 
cupied the pulpit, on Sunday morning ; these other pastors, Pres- 
byterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, and a band of well organized 
Christians of all denominations, laboring in a daily morning prayer 
meeting held at the various different churches. Night after night, 
this house was packed to the doors. The interest was so intense, 
that sometimes an overflow meeting was held in the Social Room 
above, at the same time with the meeting in the main audience 
room. Every church in the city was more or less quickened ; and 
as Dr. Noble said ''Washington had not been so moved by God's 
Spirit in a whole generation". Some of the direct results were the 
addition to this church, on a single Lord's Day of 115, and during 
the twelve months, of 170. While for years, the second service on 
the Sabbath here partook of an Evangelistic nature, being usually 
followed by an inquiry-meeting. The people soon discovered that 
the church doors were always open to welcome thm. Ameong the 
most faithful and successful of Christian workers, at that time, were 
Dr. O.F. Presbrey, Mr. and Mrs. Francis H. Smith, Mrs. C. A. Weed, 
Miss Mattie Hooper, Miss Cook, and the wife of the pastor. From 
the number of converts, Mrs. Weed organized a Young Mens' Sun- 
day School Class, which she taught for many years. And several 
others did the sume. 



The same kind of pronounced effort, was put forth in the cause of 
Gospel Temperance. These church doors were thrown open to Mr. 
Francis Murph}^, and hundreds of reformed men first took the pledge 
within these walls; while from the Evangelistic efforts above alluded 
to almost every pew in this house, became a chapel, where some 
soul determined, ''As for me, I will serve the Lord !" Indeed I. 
scarcely ever go into the public streets of this city to this day, when 
some one dose not greet me, as a redeemed man through one or the 
other of these agencies. And if I were asked, my sober second 
thought, as to the wisdom of such efforts, as a man once jealous of 
them and convinced against the constitutional reserve of his own 
nature, as well as his own aesthetic instincts, I should reply: ''lyCt 
God work b}^ whom He will work." And God forbid that His own 
ministers should neither go into His Kingdom, nor encourage those 
who are entering. 

And right upon this point, I want to say a word as to the free use 
of God's house, on other days than Sunday, and in the interest of 
the community, in contradistinction from the interest of the proprie- 
tors. We bought an organ, we secured a master of it, to this end. 
It was a stroke of the wisest policy. It was one of the necessities 
of the church, with its ^70,000 of debt, that it should have a secular 
income from the use of its edifice. It was a necessity, which was 
God's opportunity, and we saw it. As a result, the people came 
here. And while the members of other congregations were, some 
of them, very severe in their strictures, sometimes justly so, as to 
what they regarded an improper use of this sanctuary, this will al- 
ways remain true, that the common people heard the Gospel here 
and heard it gladly. I would rather preach to the people in a con- 
cert-hall, than to hear the echoes of m}^ voice in an elegant church, 
half filled. It is a great deal easier keeping the people away from 
God's house, than getting them to it. It is a great deal easier dis- 
membering the ties, which draw the common people to a place of 
worship then establishing them. And in this church these ties were 
firmly established; and the people came here and God blessed the 
preaching of the Gospel to them. 

This church thought, not alone of its own interests. From its 
members, originated the idea of Howard University, the University 
soon taking in turn, some |ii 0,000 of its bonds ; not at first as a 
University, but as a Theological Seminary, to fit preachers for la- 
boring among the colored people. The members of this church 



were also active among the founders of the Young Men's Associa- 
tion; and for 3'ears that Association looked to the fellowship of this 
church for its President and Executive officers, as well as for the 
sinews of spiritual warfare, while its pastor never hesitated as to 
giving it the earliest and the heartiest endorsement. The same 
was true of The Womans' Christian Temperance Union. Its a- 
blest and purest advocates were alwa3^s welcome on this platform. 

In 13 word, this church never sought its own things but alwa3^s the 
things of others. And that was one secret of its success. • 

There was another line of work done b}^ this church. It was 
purely Missionar^^ Under the lead of such men as Gen. Howard, 
J. B. Johnson, J. W. Alvord, and D. B. Nichols, the colored peo- 
ple, who congregated at the close of the war in the camps near this 
cit}^, were given S3^stematic religious instruction. And for nian3^ 
3'ears, large Sunda3^ Schools were held, where now is Lincoln Me- 
morial Church, superintended b3^ John A. Cole, J. B. Johnson and 
others; and in what is now South Washington, superintended b3" O. F. 
Presbre3^ ; while the Colored School established on Judiciar3^ Square 
eventuall3^ found hospitalit3^ under these walls and remained here 
until it was translated. At no time, indeed, were not black people, 
yellow people, and red people welcome to the Sunda3^ School of this 
Church or to its communion. And probably, there was no period 
during the 15 j^ears with which this discourse has to do, when there 
were not from 30 to 50 colored members of this congregation ; and 
there was a time, under Gen. Howard's administration of the Univer- 
sity, when many of the students regulary worshiped here and sat in 
the gallery as white students do in other churches. These people 
were not here as colored people, but as belonging to the one family, 
which God has made of one blood, to dwell on all the face of the 
earth ! The3^ were here, because they had been brought up Con- 
gregationalists or felt drawn to Congregationalism, that Mother of 
some of the noblest of children, not a few from Oberlin, where 
the3^had been educated. Frederick Douglass was often here; B. K. 
Bruce and John M. Langston, Professors Mitchell and Gregor3^with 
their families, were regular attendants. And their presence was 
felt to be an honor, and an illustration of the meaning of the pass- 
age : "For by one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body, wheth- 
er we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free." 

Thirdly. I want to call your attention to the public and even nation- 
al bearing and influence of the heroic period of this church. I be- 
lieve I am speaking here, without any intention to exaggerate what 



lO 

is unimportant, though it has gone by now. The Congregational 
pulpit of New England has always discussed the moral and religious 
aspects of all great public questions; though it never has neglected 
to foster true religion, undefiled before God the Father. From the 
first it was the aim of the Pastor of this period to impress the church 
with this New England idea of freedom of the pulpit, and the legiti- 
mate power of the pulpit, in the discussion of all such questions, so 
that public days were notable ones in that period. The Forefather's 
Day, after the present speaker was installed, was celebrated by a 
New England dinner, in which Senator Patterson, of New Hamp- 
shire, and Judge Poland, of Vermont, and Senator Pomeroy, of Kan- 
sas, and Frederick Douglass, Senator at large, were among the speak- 
ers. And the themes discussed were the great historic themes, which 
agitated the bosom of such men as John Milton and John Hampden 
and the early forefathers of New England. And night after night, 
at this season of the year, were addresses often delivered by differ- 
ent members of this congregation, and none was better able to fur- 
nish competent speakers, for during this period, there were lawyers 
many and doctors some, and at one time twenty-three ministers en- 
rolled among its number, on the Pirgrim Idea! On the Forefathers 
Day referred to, Frederick Douglass discussed his Pilgrim Fathers, 
who landed in Virginia; so that we got, not only the lights but the 
shadows of the occasion. And on Thanksgiving Day, this edifice 
was year after year packed to the ceiling. 

I have spoken in passing, of the kind of material, which made up 
the congregation. They were men cast in the heroic mould, and 
women of the same type. But, they were, a large proportion of 
them, men. Two thirds, Ivwould say, as I remember their faces. 
There were hosts of young families, with a scarcely a pledge or pro- 
phecy, of the young people, who now constitute the beauty and hope 
of this church; and whom the present Pastor has the pleasant duty 
of leading in green pastures and beside still waters. And these peo- 
ple had studied recent national events in the light of history and in 
the light of Congregational history in Old England and New England. 
And their boast was ''Whose were the fathers !" And their religion 
meant not only their own salvation, but the salvation of their country, 
not only their own'peace with God, but their country's peace with 
God. And they believed that was on the basis of righteousness. 
There sat the great war-governor of Connecticut; the President of 
the First National Congregational Council, in Boston, convened there 



II 

in 1865, in part by the resolutions of the Congregational miristers of 
the great Northwest, phrased as follows : 

"Whereas, by the present war, the structure of society and of ec- 
clesiastical organization is being dissolved or greatly changed, and 
the shackles are being struck from millions of slaves, and whereas, 
vast regions and populations are being opened to the free thought, 
free speech and free missions ; and whereas, ideas and emigration 
from the Free States are likely to follow the triumph of the Union 
cause Southward ; therefore, resolved that it is the duty of the Con- 
gregational Churches of the United States, to inquire what is their 
obligation, in this vast and solemn crisis, such as comes only once in 
ages, and what new efforts', measures and polices, they may owe to 
this condition of affairs, this new genesis of nations." And the 
thoughts that were working in Governor Buckingham's mind were 
working in the minds of hundreds of others in this city, and all 
over the country. And Congregationalism was in Washington, 
in answer to this inquiry. It was not here, as an ornamental ap- 
pendage to other Christian denominations, nor as a competitor 
among them, born out of due time. It was not here, merely, as a 
convenience to a Congregational constituency, who happened to be 
sojourners. It was here on a holy errand, to hold up the standard 
of truth, and of rightousness, according to the heroic idea of Con- 
gregatioaialists, in Old England and New England. 

Bengel, in his comment on the passage, which I have selected as 
a text: ''These men that have turned the world up side down have 
come hither also," says, ''The charge was a mistake, a slander." 
It was no mistake, no slander. It was the truth, and in confirmation 
of the great Captain of Salvation, Himself: "I came not to send 
peace on earth, but a sword." Congregationalism did just here 
what the Jews complained that it was doing in their day, for I think 
Paul and Silas were Congregationalists. It turned the world up 
side down. When Congregationalism came to Washington, Howard 
University was an impossibility. It not only created it, but created 
the sentiment here, which was needed to sustain it, and which has 
sustained it. I remember well the time, when it was quite common 
to call this church the "nigger church," or as one of the more eu- 
phoniously inclined Protesant pasotrs styled it, the " Dolly Yarden" 
church. And this edifice was the only one, where Howard Univesity 
could hold its anniversary for many long years. Our Methodist 
friends are about to found a great University in this city, where it 



is very properly proclaimed, that colored people are to be admitted, 
as freely as an}^ other. Howard University will welcome such an in- 
stitution. It is an institution after its own t5^pe. Nor will it be 
jealous of its professed purpose. If colored men are happier there, 
we say let them go there. But this speaker remembers the time, 
when, on a visit here of the Evangelical Alliance, a body having 
representatives from the whole world, the pastor of the most popular 
Methodist Episcopal church in the city, waited on him, to request 
that Bishop Campbell, a colored delegate from the gentleman's own 
denomination, might speak from this platform, as it would be offen- 
sive, if a colored man, though a Methodist and a Bishop, should 
speak in the edifice, where he himself presided. And speak here, 
he did, with such a men as Dr. William Arnot, of Edinburgh, who 
had just visited Dr. Gallaudet's Deaf-Mute College, and there de- 
rived a beautiful illustration of the office of the Holy Spirit, as the 
Interpreter, of which he gave us the benefit. 

God gave it to this church, in that heroic period, when such tes- 
timony was especially needed here and everywhere, to prove to this 
city and to the country that it was possible to realize Chrisf's own idea 
in founding a church, where all distinction should be forgotten in the 
presence of the Being, who has made of one blood all nations and 
who by the shedding of the same blood, has redeemed all natioi^s. 
And this will always be among the sacred memories of the Pastor of 
that period, that the first person whom he ever baptised in the 
presence of the emblems of the death of the Son of man, in this 
church, was a colored man, who his predecessor thought it was ex- 
pedient should go elsewhere, and the last pastoral office of this kind 
performed by him, was the baptism of an infant, in one of the same 
families, the stormy night before he left the city. 

My Dear Christian Friends, I speak of these things, not as espe- 
cially important except as matters of history, just as the old soldier 
shoulders his crutch and fights battles over again. I see only here 
and there, one among you who knows much about such questions or 
cares much about them now. They are almost as far from your mind 
and thought, as the landing of the Pilgrims. In ten more years, the 
last man who participated in these events, will have passed away. 

Twenty five years ago, this church was pleading for very existence, 
was asking contributions, all over the country, for help to establish 
a church, according to the Pilgrim idea. Eater the members, who 
were drawn to it, in spite of the bitter controversy which had divid- 



^3 

ed it, in spite of the denominational and social prejudice, in spite of 
its daring and heroic positions upon all questions of progress and re 
form, later its members, for a half-generation, were standing beneath 
its heavy burdens, that their successors might be heirs of your present 
blessings and responsibilities. I am told you think of moving up- 
town. If you could do it, if you could hold on here where you are 
among the common people and where the common people need 3^ou, 
it seems to some of us, that it might be well. It is not many days 
since Gen. Howard said to me : ''Remember, that when I am gone, 
I ask only one monument, the completed tower of the First Congre- 
gational Church in Washington." ^ut if on the uplifting tide of 
business you are borne away from this site, if because your property 
is so valuable you can n(5t afford to occupy it, remember, that you 
have this property in trust for the best uses, to which it can be put; 
not for yourselves and your children alone, but for this great city, 
yes, for those, who shall come to this city, when the present period 
of your church history shall be completed, and others shall occupy 
your places as you now occupy the place of those, who have gone 
before you. Remember that you have your name and heritage 
here, only because those who have gone before you, counted 
not their reputation, their fortunes, their lives dear to them, 
if a church of their own fair New England, might lift up its 
walls beneath the shadow of the Capitol. And remember, too, of 
whom it was said in prophecy: '^The Spirit of the I^ord is upon 
me, because the lyOrd hath anointed me to preach good tidings 
to the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, 
and to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the 
prison to them that are bound." ''And let this mind be in you 
which was also in Christ Jesus ! ' ' 




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